Store by store, Gainesville's old guard closing its doors

Karen Wood, a 16 year employee, is comforted by her husband William, after Central Florida Office Plus officially closed Tuesday, June 24, 2014. At back is 21 year employee George Rochette. After 56 years in Gainesville the store closed it's doors forever at noon on Tuesday.

Published: Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 5:58 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, June 28, 2014 at 5:58 p.m.

Central Florida Office Plus had been losing accounts to sell office supplies for 20 years as hospitals and government agencies migrated to national vendors.

In addition, an increasing number of Gainesville businesses are owned by out-of-town entities that make purchasing decisions from corporate headquarters.

Then the in-store retail side dropped significantly starting around 2007 as big-box retailers boosted office and school supply sections with top-selling items.

"A favorite comment of my dad's was the number of people who would come in and thank us for carrying the hard-to-find items, but we knew that meant they'd already shopped for their commodities someplace different and we can't live on selling one purple pen refill a couple of times a year," said W.T. Chesnut, who 15 years ago took over the business that his father, Bill, founded in 1958.

The business fell behind on its rent and expenses a few years ago, and the Chesnuts — Bill, W.T. and his wife, Mary — decided earlier this year to shut down. The property owner is suing the business for indebtedness and issued an eviction summons, and Chesnut said they are filing for bankruptcy and would liquidate the remaining inventory and equipment.

They closed the doors for good at noon on Tuesday.

Central Florida Office Plus is the latest of the old guard of locally owned businesses to close in recent years, joining the likes of Farah's, Hyde and Zeke Records, Randy Batista's Gallery 21, Jay's Bridal, Tackle Box, George's Hardware, Goerings Book Store, and the granddaddy of them all, Louis' Lunch, which closed in 2010 after 82 years.

This year, the Westgate Regency Shopping Center has seen Lipham Music close after 59 years and Crevasse's Regency Florist close after 47 years, while the nearby Grandy's outparcel plans to close after 28 years in August.

The businesses' owners have cited a combination of factors for their decisions, including increased competition from national retailers and online shopping, a poor economy, a desire for aging owners to retire or to focus on other business interests. In most cases, more than one reason was at play.

A common theme is the changing shopping habits of price-conscious consumers who increasingly value the purchasing power of national chain stores and online retailers that pass on low overhead costs over personal relationships and customer service.

Chesnut said the demise of other local businesses played into their own as fewer are around to support each other.

B&B Office Systems — a customer and vendor of Central Florida Office Plus for 30 years — has faced similar pressures as copy machine manufacturers have opened local storefronts to compete for their business.

President Hal Deck said longtime clients who face rising costs for everything will at least go talk to the competition.

"It's in their best interest, but if you have a good relationship with a client and they have a good relationship with you, the value is there, but what is it? And that's the million-dollar question that no one seems to be able to answer," Deck said.

"Someday people are going to look around and there's going to be nothing but big-box stores or the Internet and you're not going to have that person to talk to and to touch (merchandise) and feel it," Deck continued.

The number of old, locally owned businesses in Gainesville is not readily available. The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce lists 129 businesses that have been members at least 30 years. Of those, about a dozen are retail stores, with the rest being in services such as real estate, banking, insurance and health care.

Walker Furniture is approaching its 75th year in business. Second-generation owner Benny Walker said the furniture business is unique in that it is still largely dominated by independent stores, although it also faces pressure from Internet sales and shoppers who like to leave town to make major purchases.

"A lot of people like the large, big boxes and they won't seek out the independent dealer like people used to do," he said.

Business owners said the cost of doing business today is also prohibitive to starting a new, independently owned local business.

Walker said one delivery truck costs $40,000.

Deck said B&B Office Systems can survive because it is an already-established business.

"If I had to do it over again today, understanding the market and the toughness to try to make a buck, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole," he said. "That's sad."

In addition to office supplies, Central Florida Office Plus also has been the go-to store for art supplies and has been the supplier to students taking art and architecture classes at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida, as well as Gainesville's broader artistic community.

Oil painter Margaret Tolbert was in the store on its final morning Tuesday buying containers of turpenoid, an odorless paint thinner, and oil paints, including a radiant turquoise she uses to depict the area's natural springs.

"You don't find this kind of stuff, these colors, in lots of stores," she said. "They've been really good about carrying special things we like."

Tolbert said there was "intense dismay" in the artistic community when word spread of Central Florida's closing.

Tom Hart is a cartoonist and director of the Sequential Artists Workshop on South Main Street. He said the store was a meeting place for artists.

"We would always send students there," he said of Central Florida Office Plus. "We run workshops where people come from out of town. It was always a matter of pride that we had a good art store within walking distance."

Hart said in the short run artists will buy the materials they are familiar with online, but Gainesville needs a "vibrant arts store."

"You need to go in and feel your material sometimes and try out new material and talk to the people who order stuff and see what they've come across," he said.

Corks & Colors already has started working with UF professors to supply students.

Bill Chesnut spent 12 years working for uncle Gibbes Chesnut at Chesnut's Office Supplies before starting what was then Central Florida Office Supply in 1958.

Bill Chesnut's customers were doctors, lawyers and other small businesses, and the operation would grow into a succession of larger offices until settling at 10 NW Sixth St. in 1981.

That year, Central Florida added art supplies and later would expand into picture framing.

At its peak in the mid-1990s, the business employed 67 people and had two locations after Chesnut's Office Supplies closed and Central Florida bought its location at 105 SW 34th St. next to Publix.

The business became an Office Furniture USA franchise in 1995, expanding its furniture showroom, and joined the Office Plus cooperative purchasing group in 1997, changing its name to Central Florida Office Plus.

The independent office supply business had already been on the decline for years by that time. W.T. Chesnut said Gainesville had at least eight locally owned office supply businesses in the 1960s, including Parker's, Morgan's, Office Mart and Office Concepts, in addition to machine dealers that sold calculators and typewriters. With Central Florida closing, Chesnut said Mister Paper might be the last locally owned office supplier.

Membership in the Florida Office Products Association dropped from 840 members to 165 over a period of 10 years when it dissolved in 1992, Chesnut said.

Central Florida Office first noticed a decline in sales when Sam's Club opened around 1990 and the Office Depot opened on Northwest 13th Street a few years later.

More corporate businesses with national supply contracts edged out local businesses, reducing the pool of available customers. Government agencies and hospitals moved to contracts with national vendors. Shands — now UF Health — was Central Florida's largest account until the early 2000s. Medical practices became affiliated with hospitals that had buying privileges through their contracts.

Central Florida closed its 34th Street location about five years ago. Chesnut said business there dropped about 40 percent when roadwork at the intersection made it difficult for customers to get in and out of the shopping center and they were faced with more construction on the Second Avenue side.

The family also opened an Office Furniture location in Ocala in 2000 but closed five years later because of personnel problems and because W.T. was now running both locations and couldn't devote the attention to Ocala since his father retired.

Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS started carrying more office and school supplies, which drastically cut into retail sales starting around 2007.

Chesnut said a quote published in The Sun from the owner of the recently closed Mr. Goodbike about hanging on too long for love of the business hit close to home.

"We should have closed five years ago when things got really tough, but we love our customers, we love our suppliers and we love our people, and it just made it where we kept thinking we could do it and we just kind of finally realized it just couldn't go any further," Chesnut said.

The news started spreading a couple of weeks ago, and Chesnut said the store was full of well-wishers on the Saturday before closing.

"People had me in tears," he said.

"I hate to see it happen to great people who have served the community for such a long period of time," Deck said. "It's not a death in the family, but it's 30 years worth of relationships, and we're not going to have it anymore and it's just sad."

<p>Central Florida Office Plus had been losing accounts to sell office supplies for 20 years as hospitals and government agencies migrated to national vendors.</p><p>In addition, an increasing number of Gainesville businesses are owned by out-of-town entities that make purchasing decisions from corporate headquarters.</p><p>Then the in-store retail side dropped significantly starting around 2007 as big-box retailers boosted office and school supply sections with top-selling items.</p><p>"A favorite comment of my dad's was the number of people who would come in and thank us for carrying the hard-to-find items, but we knew that meant they'd already shopped for their commodities someplace different and we can't live on selling one purple pen refill a couple of times a year," said W.T. Chesnut, who 15 years ago took over the business that his father, Bill, founded in 1958.</p><p>The business fell behind on its rent and expenses a few years ago, and the Chesnuts — Bill, W.T. and his wife, Mary — decided earlier this year to shut down. The property owner is suing the business for indebtedness and issued an eviction summons, and Chesnut said they are filing for bankruptcy and would liquidate the remaining inventory and equipment.</p><p>They closed the doors for good at noon on Tuesday.</p><p>Central Florida Office Plus is the latest of the old guard of locally owned businesses to close in recent years, joining the likes of Farah's, Hyde and Zeke Records, Randy Batista's Gallery 21, Jay's Bridal, Tackle Box, George's Hardware, Goerings Book Store, and the granddaddy of them all, Louis' Lunch, which closed in 2010 after 82 years.</p><p>This year, the Westgate Regency Shopping Center has seen Lipham Music close after 59 years and Crevasse's Regency Florist close after 47 years, while the nearby Grandy's outparcel plans to close after 28 years in August.</p><p>The businesses' owners have cited a combination of factors for their decisions, including increased competition from national retailers and online shopping, a poor economy, a desire for aging owners to retire or to focus on other business interests. In most cases, more than one reason was at play.</p><p>A common theme is the changing shopping habits of price-conscious consumers who increasingly value the purchasing power of national chain stores and online retailers that pass on low overhead costs over personal relationships and customer service.</p><p>Chesnut said the demise of other local businesses played into their own as fewer are around to support each other.</p><p>B&B Office Systems — a customer and vendor of Central Florida Office Plus for 30 years — has faced similar pressures as copy machine manufacturers have opened local storefronts to compete for their business.</p><p>President Hal Deck said longtime clients who face rising costs for everything will at least go talk to the competition.</p><p>"It's in their best interest, but if you have a good relationship with a client and they have a good relationship with you, the value is there, but what is it? And that's the million-dollar question that no one seems to be able to answer," Deck said.</p><p>"Someday people are going to look around and there's going to be nothing but big-box stores or the Internet and you're not going to have that person to talk to and to touch (merchandise) and feel it," Deck continued.</p><p>The number of old, locally owned businesses in Gainesville is not readily available. The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce lists 129 businesses that have been members at least 30 years. Of those, about a dozen are retail stores, with the rest being in services such as real estate, banking, insurance and health care.</p><p>Walker Furniture is approaching its 75th year in business. Second-generation owner Benny Walker said the furniture business is unique in that it is still largely dominated by independent stores, although it also faces pressure from Internet sales and shoppers who like to leave town to make major purchases.</p><p>"A lot of people like the large, big boxes and they won't seek out the independent dealer like people used to do," he said.</p><p>Business owners said the cost of doing business today is also prohibitive to starting a new, independently owned local business.</p><p>Walker said one delivery truck costs $40,000.</p><p>Deck said B&B Office Systems can survive because it is an already-established business.</p><p>"If I had to do it over again today, understanding the market and the toughness to try to make a buck, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole," he said. "That's sad."</p><p>In addition to office supplies, Central Florida Office Plus also has been the go-to store for art supplies and has been the supplier to students taking art and architecture classes at Santa Fe College and the University of Florida, as well as Gainesville's broader artistic community.</p><p>Oil painter Margaret Tolbert was in the store on its final morning Tuesday buying containers of turpenoid, an odorless paint thinner, and oil paints, including a radiant turquoise she uses to depict the area's natural springs.</p><p>"You don't find this kind of stuff, these colors, in lots of stores," she said. "They've been really good about carrying special things we like."</p><p>Tolbert said there was "intense dismay" in the artistic community when word spread of Central Florida's closing.</p><p>Tom Hart is a cartoonist and director of the Sequential Artists Workshop on South Main Street. He said the store was a meeting place for artists.</p><p>"We would always send students there," he said of Central Florida Office Plus. "We run workshops where people come from out of town. It was always a matter of pride that we had a good art store within walking distance."</p><p>Hart said in the short run artists will buy the materials they are familiar with online, but Gainesville needs a "vibrant arts store."</p><p>"You need to go in and feel your material sometimes and try out new material and talk to the people who order stuff and see what they've come across," he said.</p><p>Corks & Colors already has started working with UF professors to supply students.</p><p>Bill Chesnut spent 12 years working for uncle Gibbes Chesnut at Chesnut's Office Supplies before starting what was then Central Florida Office Supply in 1958.</p><p>Bill Chesnut's customers were doctors, lawyers and other small businesses, and the operation would grow into a succession of larger offices until settling at 10 NW Sixth St. in 1981.</p><p>That year, Central Florida added art supplies and later would expand into picture framing.</p><p>At its peak in the mid-1990s, the business employed 67 people and had two locations after Chesnut's Office Supplies closed and Central Florida bought its location at 105 SW 34th St. next to Publix.</p><p>The business became an Office Furniture USA franchise in 1995, expanding its furniture showroom, and joined the Office Plus cooperative purchasing group in 1997, changing its name to Central Florida Office Plus.</p><p>The independent office supply business had already been on the decline for years by that time. W.T. Chesnut said Gainesville had at least eight locally owned office supply businesses in the 1960s, including Parker's, Morgan's, Office Mart and Office Concepts, in addition to machine dealers that sold calculators and typewriters. With Central Florida closing, Chesnut said Mister Paper might be the last locally owned office supplier.</p><p>Membership in the Florida Office Products Association dropped from 840 members to 165 over a period of 10 years when it dissolved in 1992, Chesnut said.</p><p>Central Florida Office first noticed a decline in sales when Sam's Club opened around 1990 and the Office Depot opened on Northwest 13th Street a few years later.</p><p>More corporate businesses with national supply contracts edged out local businesses, reducing the pool of available customers. Government agencies and hospitals moved to contracts with national vendors. Shands — now UF Health — was Central Florida's largest account until the early 2000s. Medical practices became affiliated with hospitals that had buying privileges through their contracts.</p><p>Central Florida closed its 34th Street location about five years ago. Chesnut said business there dropped about 40 percent when roadwork at the intersection made it difficult for customers to get in and out of the shopping center and they were faced with more construction on the Second Avenue side.</p><p>The family also opened an Office Furniture location in Ocala in 2000 but closed five years later because of personnel problems and because W.T. was now running both locations and couldn't devote the attention to Ocala since his father retired.</p><p>Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS started carrying more office and school supplies, which drastically cut into retail sales starting around 2007.</p><p>Chesnut said a quote published in The Sun from the owner of the recently closed Mr. Goodbike about hanging on too long for love of the business hit close to home.</p><p>"We should have closed five years ago when things got really tough, but we love our customers, we love our suppliers and we love our people, and it just made it where we kept thinking we could do it and we just kind of finally realized it just couldn't go any further," Chesnut said.</p><p>The news started spreading a couple of weeks ago, and Chesnut said the store was full of well-wishers on the Saturday before closing.</p><p>"People had me in tears," he said.</p><p>"I hate to see it happen to great people who have served the community for such a long period of time," Deck said. "It's not a death in the family, but it's 30 years worth of relationships, and we're not going to have it anymore and it's just sad."</p>